Kaya Irimi’s True Relationship with Chuu Hachikawa
One of the most overlooked battles in the Tokyo Ghoul series is Kaya Irimi’s battle with Chuu Hachikawa at the end of Part 1. This may be since they both have limited screentime (Irimi only appears personally in around 30 chapters, and Hachikawa has far less). In particular, Hachikawa only appears for a few chapters in the final arc in part 1, and then for even fewer chapters in :re before he is killed off by Rio on Rushima Island. However, in what time he has important information is provided about his past, and how it’s linked to Irimi’s.
Ten years before the end of the original series, Hachikawa was part of an operation against Irimi and her old gang (the Black Dobers). However, his entire unit was wiped out with him being the sole survivor, and his face mauled. This led to him bearing an intense grudge against Irimi that culminated in his battle with her. However, information given during their battle and subsequent information hint at a deeper relationship between them.
Firstly, it’s mentioned that his superiors were with him in the unit that was wiped out (meaning, investigators more skilled than himself). Not only that, but as we see during the battle at Anteiku, the Black Dobers as a group were fully intact.
So, not only was Hachikawa’s unit entirely wiped out, but they caused little if any damage to the Black Dobers. So, if at the end of this operation the Black Dobers lost few if any members and Hachikawa was all alone (and not even the strongest investigator who’d been present), what stopped them from finishing him off? As Ghouls are much faster than humans and have heightened senses, it’s doubtful that he could’ve escaped. So, what then?
Well, during Irimi’s fight with Hachikawa, we get subtle hints as to why. Firstly, before their fight Irimi hears a familiar sound.
This sound stops her in her tracks, but what was it? It wasn’t the incoming shots being fired at her, because those are what snaps her out of what she was focusing on. So, what was the sound? Well, first we need to review how a ghoul’s sound detection ability works. As revealed by Kaya herself earlier in the manga:
Ghouls can determine who a person is based on the sound that their bodies create. So, during the Anteiku raid when she stopped dead in her tracks when she heard “that sound” is must have been made by someone she was familiar with. After she dodges the bullets shot at her, we see who it is:
Hachikawa was supposedly just a member of an investigative team that Irimi once fought. However, she’s able to notice his presence among all the other investigators just by hearing the sound his body makes (after not seeing him for ten years). Not only that, but she even knows him by name. She also refers to him by the nickname “Hachi,” which is the same nickname his subordinate Ayumu Hogi refers to him by.
So, she not only knows him by name, but she can even sense when his body is present after being apart for a decade. She refers to him by the affectionate nickname of “Hachi” and they even engage in playful banter while trying to kill one another. This all points to one thing: they were lovers.
Now, you may be thinking this is crazy, but there is additional evidence. In the Tokyo Ghoul novel, Past, in one chapter it goes over Enji Koma’s first days at Anteiku. He was Yoshimura’s first employee, and after a while Kaya Irimi started working there as well. He is extremely surprised by this and wonders why she chose to start working there. He also mentions that when she started working there is around the time that the CCG became aware of her gang. If the CCG hadn’t become aware of the Black Dobers yet, then they couldn’t have performed any operations against them. So, the first operation against the Black Dobers (where Hachikawa’s face was mauled) actually happened after Irimi started working at Anteiku.
During this chapter, a regular customer who seems to be infatuated with Koma points out his good points to Irimi, and she then becomes jealous of easily he can get along with humans. She then resolves to work harder at this. Why would the leader of a violent ghoul gang just suddenly want to be friendly with humans? Well, in this chapter when Irimi is talking with this customer it’s revealed she had a boyfriend around this time. If this boyfriend were a human then it could explain why she inexplicably started working at Anteiku. She wanted to learn how to live in the human world with him, and so she saw Anteiku as a way out of the life she had been living now that the CCG had begun targeting her and her gang.
Based on this reasoning and the previous evidence, we would assume this boyfriend to be Hachikawa. It would also explain why Hachikawa was spared when the rest of his squad was killed. However, during the battle of Anteiku Hachikawa wasn’t surprised when Irimi was unmasked (he wasn’t surprised to see who the Black Dog really was). Therefore, if they were in a relationship he must have learned she was a ghoul at some point.
However, if he knew what she looked like why didn’t he inform the CCG after his squad was killed by her gang? A textual reason:
If Hachikawa knew Irimi was a ghoul and didn’t report her to the CCG then he could have been punished due to this law. Even if he didn’t know (perhaps he found out during the first Black Dober operation) he could still have been punished regardless. Remember, we see in Tokyo Ghoul :re that Furuta uses this law to have Yoriko imprisoned even though she didn’t know Touka was a ghoul (because there was no way to prove it). There would be no way to prove Hachikawa didn’t know his girlfriend was a ghoul, and so he could’ve been punished regardless. Even if wasn’t punished, if it became public knowledge that he dated a ghoul (the one who killed his team no less) he would’ve become severely stigmatized in the CCG and elsewhere due to the overwhelming prejudice against ghouls. So, Hachikawa was maimed by the woman he loved and all his friends were killed, but he had no chance to take revenge on her for a decade. This is likely what caused him to develop his bitter personality.
Fun fact, Ishida-sensei says he partially named Hachikawa after “Hachiko.” Hachiko was a loyal Akita dog who waited on his dead owner to return for nine years until his death (like Hachikawa waited nearly a decade to try and obtain revenge against Irimi). Takizawa even refers to Hachikawa as this when he spots him on Rushima.
Irimi’s Side of the Story
However, if Hachikawa was Irimi’s boyfriend why would she bite his face off? During the Anteiku battle, she also seems to have great animosity towards him. Perhaps Hachikawa (after learning she was a ghoul ten years previously) leaked information about the Black Dobers to the CCG which led to his squad’s operation against them? This betrayal would make Hachikawa’s desire for revenge rather ironic, as it would mean it was his fault that his squad got killed. However, there is more. After the end of her battle against Hachikawa in the Anteiku raid (when she thinks she is going to die) she tells him she will see him in hell with a knowing smile on her face.
While Irimi spends this chapter reflecting on her own past sins, here she reveals knowledge of something damning she knows he’s done. As for what that is, Ishida-sensei leaves us a clue on the cover page of chapter 131.
Here, Ishida-sensei draws an “X” mark on Irimi’s stomach. He has used “X” several times throughout the story, and it always refers to one thing.
He uses it to refer to a hybrid of the two species. He uses “X” to denote this several times in the story. For example, when Eto Yoshimura (who is a one-eyed ghoul) went on her first rampage, she was titled “X” by the CCG. The title of :re chapter 125 (where Kaneki and Touka have sex and conceive a hybrid child) was also “X.” So, this is Ishida telling that at one point Irimi became pregnant with a hybrid child.
However, when Itori discusses hybrids in the original series, she states it’s impossible for female ghouls to give birth to hybrids.
Here she states a ghoul mother’s body would absorb her child for nutrition. However, the validity of this statement comes into question when her other statement was proven to be false. She states that if a human mother becomes pregnant with a hybrid then that hybrid wouldn’t be able to receive proper nourishment (rc cells). Despite this, we’ve seen that the mother could simply consume human flesh like Ukina did for her daughter Eto. However, we’ve seen in a few instances in the story that Eto (a natural hybrid) is capable of consuming human food, so even this may not have been necessary. Furthermore, Kishou Arima stated that most hybrids were born as half-humans who only required human food, and so they wouldn’t need to be fed rc cells in the womb regardless.
So, since Itori was wrong/lying about human mothers of hybrids, could she be incorrect about ghoul mothers as well? How exactly would a ghoul mother’s body consume her child from the uterus?
Irimi becoming pregnant with a human’s child and then it dying in the womb serves no narrative purpose. So, we presume that she became pregnant with Hachikawa’s child and successfully delivered, but there is no mention of such a child in the original series or the sequel. So, what happened to it?
This “X” on Irimi’s womb is shown on the cover of chapter 131, and this is the same chapter where she states she will see Hachikawa “in hell.” So, what could Hachikawa have done to merit him going to hell? Considering the “X” symbol, he probably killed their child. He figured out at some point that Irimi was a ghoul, and so he killed the child they had together due to his prejudice against ghouls.
Irimi’s Disillusionment with the Past
When Irimi and Koma reunite with Kaneki in :re chapter 99, at first all parties appear happy. However, then Kaneki states that having them all together feels like “Anteiku” all over again. Upon hearing this statement, everyone begins to either smile or reminisce. All except for one:
If you look close enough at Kaya’s hair, you can see a “2,” a “3” to the right of it, and a “J” above the 3. Ishida-sensei commonly places tarot numbers on character in their defining moments.
The 2 refers to the High Priestess which represents: hidden talents, things yet to be revealed, mystery, spiritual insight, and intuition. While the others remember Anteiku happily, Irimi’s intuition and insight let her know that it was only a happy dream (an escape from the normal, everyday lives of ghouls). She joined to learn how to live with her lover, but that lover betrayed her. And how did this dream end? All her old friends from her gang were slaughtered like animals.
The 3 refers to the empress which represents: pregnancy, a new opportunity, abundance, stability, nurturing, and maternal care. This likely refers to the child she lost, another down side of her days at Anteiku (which further explains why she is unhappy at the mention of Anteiku).
The J is part of the High Priestess card. In the background of this card there are two pillars.
The “B” refers to “Boaz,” which means “to negate.” The “J” refers to “Jachin” which means “beginning.” The beginning of what exactly in unclear. Perhaps she will finally begin to move beyond her past?
Kaya Irimi, The Lord of Ruin, and the Future
Sui Ishida once released a playing card deck called “Tokyo Ghoul Trump.” In it, each playing card has the illustration of either one or two characters (meaning he identified them with that card). For Irimi, he placed her on the 10 of Spades card.
Regarding tarot, the spades suit also refers to the swords suit. Thus, she is also the 10 of Swords, which is also known as The Lord of Ruin.
When it is upright, the 10 of Swords refer to: painful endings, deep wounds, betrayal, loss, and crisis. However, we also see in this card that the sun is rising. It is the end of a dark night and the dawning of a new day. We also see that the hand gesture that is made is the same one made by tarot #5: the Hierophant. Ishida-sensei has also identified her with this number in the past as well.
In addition to the “X” that had identified she had a hybrid child at one point, there is also a “5” here which refers back to the 10 of Swords. She has suffered deep wounds in the past: her lover betrayed her, she lost her child, and she thinks she is going meet a painful ending until she is saved by Kaneki. However, we also see her with this number at the end of Tokyo Ghoul :re.
Here, after rotating this image sideways we can see #5, which again refers back to the 10 of Swords. Here it seems to be in a reversed position, and when the 10 of Swords is reversed it refers to recovery and regeneration. However, Irimi is presumed to have died in this panel, and so if she died how could she recover?
Well, Naki and his White Suits were shown to have died in the 24th Ward, but they later returned. Many fans have theorized that this is because they were exposed to Dragon’s toxin underground, and so this same method could be used to restore Irimi to life. At the end of the original series Irimi stated she felt the need for her past sins with her death. So, maybe dying and then being brought back is exactly what she needs in order to move on?
Sui Ishida has stated that there “probably” wouldn’t be any further Tokyo Ghoul sequels, and recently he has been working on a video game related series called “Jack Jeanne” for the past three years (which is about to be released). However, he has also expressed interest in creating another manga in the future, and him saying “probably” still leaves the option open. If the sun rises on Tokyo Ghoul again, the sun will rise on Kaya Irimi as well.
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